The most prevalently produced transfer device at the current time is a mattress having an array of laterally extending chambers arranged in a generally rectangular pattern in the center of the mattress, with a continuous, rectangular outer chamber extending around the periphery of the mattress. Several embodiments of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,873.
In many cases, a patient transfer mattress includes a plurality of inflatable mattress segments. Each mattress segment includes a plurality of small holes in a bottom sheet to create a cushion of escaping air beneath the mattress segment that facilitates sliding movement of the mattress segment along an underlying surface. Each mattress segment also includes at least one pulling member. The pulling member allows a person to easily grab the mattress to pull it from a first underlying surface to a second underlying surface. An example of the pulling member is a pair of handles affixed to the mattress.
Although these mattresses can be cleaned and disinfected after use with various germicidal cleaning solutions, it is preferable to keep the mattress surfaces protected from contact with infectious or contaminating body fluids. This has been accomplished in prior art air mattresses by providing a sanitary sheet, essentially identical to the top sheet of the mattress, which is folded and inserted in a pouch at the foot end of the mattress. This sheet, referred to as a “sani-liner”, is intended to be removed from the pouch and laid over the top sheet of the deflated mattress before the patient is placed upon the mattress. When the mattress is then inflated, the sani-liner sheet protects the top surface of the mattress from potentially infectious material. The sani-liner can later be cleaned and disinfected, folded and returned to the pouch.
The present invention solves these problems of having bulky patient-transfer mattresses and additional sani-liners.